


But The Sun Returned

by AbschaumNo1



Series: Les AUs de l'ABC [2]
Category: Les Misérables - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Marvel Avengers Fusion, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Captain America: The Winter Soldier Spoilers, I couldn't let this idea go so I had to write it, M/M, it's not much but I used elements from the film, Éponine doesn't feature much btw
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-21
Updated: 2014-05-21
Packaged: 2018-01-25 22:42:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,856
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1665194
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AbschaumNo1/pseuds/AbschaumNo1
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The face of the man is striking, and even though he says the words, says, “Who the hell is Grantaire?”, the soldier knows that he knows this face. The thing is that he doesn't even know his own face.</p><p>Les AUs de l'ABC - M for Marvel</p>
            </blockquote>





	But The Sun Returned

**Author's Note:**

> Ok so some time after seeing the new Captain America (which I practically love to pieces btw) I got this thought stuck in my head, that was pretty much "What if Grantaire was Bucky and Enjolras was Steve?" and I couldn't let it go until I just said fuck it and wrote it (in the middle of exams... while procrastinating studying... but hey who needs to study if you can write fic).  
> I used elements from both, the films and the comics, but mostly the films.  
> And well... I hope this makes some sort of sense to anyone?

The face of the man is striking, and even though he says the words, says, “Who the hell is Grantaire?”, the soldier knows that he knows this face. The thing is that he doesn't even know his own face.

He's wiped and they take the thing that vaguely resembles a memory from him again. The next time he sees the other man's face he only knows that this is his mission. He almost goes through with it, but he pauses when the other kneels before him, beaten bloody, the set of his jaw still defiant. “Then go ahead and kill me,” his mission says, “I am wild.”

The soldier pauses and that's when the floor falls away and he watches the man fall towards the river.

He pulls him out of the Seine and leaves him on the bank. The man will live; the soldier will try to find himself.

* * *

 

From the moment they first meet it is clear that they are complete opposites. Enjolras is idealistic to a fault, can't stay away from a fight, and is much too good for this world. Grantaire is the one who gets him out of the fights and argues with him. They are opposites and they antagonise each other, but somewhere along the line they realise that they trust each other.

The war starts and Enjolras joins the resistance. Grantaire follows him as usual. That's where their ways part for the first time in years, because Grantaire is sent out to fight, while Enjolras has to stay. Grantaire is captured, along with a bunch of others, and he's prepared to die without seeing Enjolras again, when he is saved by him.

Enjolras looks different, but it's a good different, and he can definitely hold his own in a fight now. Grantaire is prepared to see him go, and become the hero he was destined to be.

But Enjolras asks him to follow him into battle, and he becomes part of the team. He's with Enjolras, and covers him. And he does the things Enjolras can't do, because they turned him into a symbol. It's Grantaire who sneaks into enemy territory and cuts throats, and it's Grantaire who kills people before Enjolras comes in, so they can't become a problem.

And then it's Grantaire who falls first.

* * *

 

There are bits that are coming back to the Soldier, but he still feels detached from this person he's supposed to be. The Soldier thinks he is Grantaire, but he doesn't know. All he knows is that he saw that face and heard the words and just knew he had to protect him. Apparently protecting Captain France is deeper ingrained in his being than any programming.

He disappears in Paris, becomes once more the ghost he has always been, but this time he's on the run. There's been an incident before, he starts to remember it dimly; he was off the grid for a few weeks, before they found him. They made sure it wouldn't happen again. He knows that it's probably futile to try and escape, but he can't go back now.

He does his research, visits the exhibition they still have open in some museum, reads about Grantaire, and how he was Captain France's right hand man, the guy who had his back. He looks at the photo and he can see the resemblance, but he cannot see himself. He does remember the skinny kid that would become Captain France though.

He lives off of things that he can steal, and by the goodwill of a young boy, who knows his way around the city and has decided that Grantaire needs his help. He reminds the Soldier of a girl he once trained, even if she didn't know anymore. Gavroche has her talent and intelligence, and at the back of his mind the Soldier thinks that he would make a good asset if properly trained. But he doesn't make killers out of children anymore.

It's been a few weeks now, longer than the last time if the memories returning to him are right, they still haven't tried to get him back.

* * *

 

After he falls he wakes screaming, his left arm _hurts_ , and the first thing he realises is why. The second thing he realises is that the people around him speak German. He struggles and they sedate him.

The second time he wakes up he remembers nothing. They give him a gun and a knife and test him and he does exactly as he's told. There's test and more tests and lessons to learn, and he does all of it, because they tell him to. This is what he was made for. When they're done he is put back into a tank and frozen.

One of his first actual missions is an assassination somewhere in the US, the motherland has sent him to kill a general who has deflected. He tracks the target, kills it, disappears like the ghost he's supposed to be. He moves through the crowd, just another man on the streets of the city. He passes a blonde girl and for a moment something flickers in his mind; blond hair, striking beauty, and the feeling that something is missing, that there should be a metaphorical sun in his life that is not there. He shakes the thought, because he's not supposed to feel things like that. He's a tool, nothing more. He disappears into some back alley and waits for the extraction team.

They freeze and unfreeze him several times over the next decades. He never knows exactly how much time has passed. He just knows that some things change, weapons, clothes, tools, targets. Others don't, killing a target, disappearing, hiding, hand-to-hand combat; the feelings are familiar, and the actions stay the same. He's a tool and he does his job.

If his employers change he doesn't know, or care. Whether he kills for one side or the other is not something he is programmed to think about. If the 'motherland' becomes something else they don't let him know. They just program him to think the right thing. It's fine as long as he does what they say.

At some point they unfreeze him for a different purpose than killing. They have an asset they say, a girl who shows promising skills. They want him to train her. He does it without thinking twice about how young she looks, or if it's the right thing to train someone so young to kill. He finds that she is more than promising. She might be the only one who could match him. When her training is deemed finished they freeze him again.

The next time he sees the girl she doesn't remember him, and all he knows is that she took her gifts, all the things he taught her, and became an enemy. His objective is to kill her, but she has grown up and she is still as good as he remembers her being, and he is angry at her for betraying them, and all of this is a really bad idea. He doesn't kill her in the end, because he finds himself mesmerised at how easily she uses her skills. It would be a waste to kill her. It's the second time he fucks up, even though he doesn't know it at the time, doesn't remember the incident in Paris anymore. They freeze him for a very long time.

-

The Soldier knows he can't stay hidden forever. He also knows that Captain France is out there looking for him. He could never let go of his friends.

More of his memories return. He remembers Paris before the war, getting drunk in cafés, walking around, sitting in places to draw, drawing the same face over and over again. He remembers slipping into back alleys, knowing what he would find. He remembers punching people, to get the boy, the young man, the guy who would later become Captain France out of fights. He remembers arguing with him, their views complete opposites sometimes. The Soldier has always been pragmatic, he remembers, the Captain has always been too idealistic. In the end neither of them would be saved.

The Soldier steals drawing materials. He draws the same face over and over again, the same scene, a figure like a god in the foreground, a dark ghost in the back. He burns the drawings and throws the pen away.

He thinks about looking for Captain France, thinks about seeing if it helps him remember even more. He decides against it.

 

* * *

The next time they unfreeze him it's the beginning of a new century, but he doesn't know at the time. His mission is to kill a scientist, and the girl he trained all these years ago is there again, he doesn't remember her this time, just knows he's supposed to kill the man she is supposed to protect. He shoots him right through her. They ask him if he killed her as well. He doesn't know, and they seem disappointed.

They don't need him again until that fateful incident in Paris. He kills the first guy, fights the Captain for the first time, is compromised. They wipe him. The rest is history.

 

* * *

In the end there is no conscious decision to seek the Captain out, nor is he found by him. Gavroche comes running through the streets, looking for him, tells him there's an attack, something big. The team they call Avengers fighting to protect the city. He picks up a rifle he has acquired somehow during the past few months and is on his way

He watches the fight from a rooftop, and he knows they need help. They can't win this on their own. So he steadies his breath and uses his skills. He shoots down one enemy after the other, covering the Captain's back mostly, but also the girl he is so familiar with (Éponine, that's what she's called. The name is suddenly clear in his mind). When the fight is over he waits to see if they will come for him.

They don't disappoint. The first ones to turn up are not the heroes themselves though, it's a team of professionals, clad in black, guns pointed at him. But they don't shoot him, they wait.

The Captain appears and sees him, and he immediately tells the guys with the guns to stand down. He comes over to the soldier, stands in front of him. He reaches out and caresses the soldier's cheek, traces his cheekbone with his thumb, and suddenly he's kneeling in front of him, pressing their foreheads together. “It's you, Grantaire. You came back.”

And Grantaire has a crooked smile on his face. He lets his fingers ghost over Enjolras' face and whispers, “Do you permit it?”

Enjolras just takes his face in both hands, and kisses him firmly, and it feels like they have never been apart at all.

Maybe they still have to talk about all of this. And maybe Grantaire will never be the same again, but with the only thing he believes in back in his life, maybe there is hope again.

**Author's Note:**

> Come say 'hi' on [tumblr](http://abschaumno1.tumblr.com).


End file.
